Bitcoin Price Breaks Below $72K as $656M Liquidation Bloodbath Hits Crypto

Bitcoin Bulls Get Steamrolled as Liquidations Accelerate

Bitcoin’s price fall and its latest market action have transformed an already uncomfortable trading week into a punishing liquidation event, with bullish derivatives positions absorbing the overwhelming majority of losses.

According to Coinglass stats at 9:33 a.m. Eastern time, the 24-hour data shows over $656 million in liquidations, including over $555 million in longs and more than $100 million in shorts.

More than 122,000 traders were liquidated during the measured period. Bitcoin accounted for $237 million, while ethereum (ETH) followed with $122 million. Solana (SOL) contributed approximately $23 million. The largest individual liquidation event involved a $31.09 million BTC-USD long position on Hyperliquid, reportedly closed at around $72,250.

Binance represented approximately 37% of the exchange-level liquidation activity. The damage intensified around 8:15 a.m., when approximately $226.5 million in positions disappeared, overwhelmingly concentrated among longs. Meanwhile, Bitstamp action shows bitcoin changing hands near $71,888 as of this writing. Bitstamp’s hourly candles illustrated successive lower highs and lower lows following earlier prices around $76,081.

Selling volume increased during the sharper declines, suggesting aggressive liquidation-driven activity rather than an orderly retreat. The market downturn follows reports of Nvidia’s boss, Jensen Huang, resigning from the AI giant over his extramartial affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

What’s Driving Bitcoin’s Relentless Selling Pressure?

The liquidation figures on Thursday establish the scale of leveraged losses, but identifying the original catalyst for today’s BTC price dump requires separating market activity from several competing explanations. While the Nvidia news broke just recently, withdrawals from U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become a prominent concern.

Macroeconomic anxiety has also entered the discussion, particularly claims of unexpectedly firm October inflation and renewed speculation about Federal Reserve tightening. Technology-sector weakness, including Nvidia’s leadership shakeup today, has likewise been cited as a possible influence by many market observers.

Additional concerns include index-related pressure on Strategy, contracting stablecoin supplies, and weaker U.S. buying activity reflected in Coinbase premium indicators. For now, traders face an uncomfortable combination of declining prices and disappearing leverage. Recovering the $75,600 to $75,700 region could improve the technical picture, but that level offers no guarantee of renewed demand.

The immediate question is whether forced selling has exhausted itself or merely exposed a deeper absence of willing buyers.